High school baseball: Schilling, Foley end Bridgman's run

Junior right-hander Garrett Schilling completely handcuffed the Bees, and his teammates backed up him with timely hitting, as the Ventures posted a 6-0 victory in the Division 3 state baseball semifinals.

Bishop Foley (35-2-1) will be trying to become the first baseball team in state history to win three straight state titles when it faces Grandville Calvin Christian (24-3) in Saturday's Division 3 state title game.

Schilling was brilliant, scattering three hits, striking out nine and not walking a batter to improve to 15-0 this season and 31-0 for his career. The Bees (26-6-1) only got one runner as far as second.

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"Schilling hit every single spot," Bridgman coach Justin Hahaj said. "He mixed it up and worked in and out. He was a tough guy to scratch out any runs against."

"He was probably the best pitcher we've seen as far as having location down to the spot," Bridgman shortstop Matt Hendricks said. "He never missed his spot once.

"It's awesome to have a pitcher like that, because nobody is going to hit a line drive. You're going to hit down on the ball if you're hitting it. Plus, he's not going to hang anything that you can take out of the park. He changed pitches every time you batted."

"I think I got one fastball the whole game," said Bridgman first baseman Brock Belanger, the Bees' leading hitter (.427), who went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. "He mixed it up with changeups and curveballs. I would have thought he would have thrown harder. But when you have a 7 miles-per-hour difference on the changeup and can saw everybody off, you don't need to throw hard. He proved that."

"Garrett has command of so many pitches," Sunde said. "And it's really hard when you see him the second and third time around, because he doesn't throw the same pitches to hitters. He's got five pitches, and he can throw each of them for a strike anytime he wants to. The second-to-last hitter struck out on a 3-and-2 curveball. The hitter before that on a 3-and-2 split-finger fastball. We mix the pitches up and try not to show everything early. We'll use some pitches the first four innings and something different the last three."

Schilling rarely pitched from behind in the count.

"I would get ahead 0-and-1 and throw my slider and curveball," Schilling said. "I was hitting my spots pretty well with those pitches."

Bishop Foley also gave Bridgman a taste of its own medicine on the basepaths. The Ventures were successful on six of seven stolen base attempts, and three of the steals led directly to runs.

"When we see something, we want to take advantage of it," Sunde said. "We clock from the time a pitcher releases the ball to when the catcher gets it. And we also time the speed of the catcher's throw to second. We knew in the first inning that if we could get a little jump, we could run on them a little bit."

"They're very well-coached on the basepaths," Hahaj said. "And once we were down and they smelled blood, they kept pouring it on."

Bishop Foley gave Schilling all the runs he needed in the third inning. Right fielder Austin Lukaschewski singled and stole second. One out later shortstop Brad Baldwin's single drove in Lukaschewski. Baldwin also stole second and scored on left fielder Nate Grys' single.

Schilling, Lukaschewski and Grys each had two hits for the Ventures, and Grys and Baldwin each drove in two runs.

Bridgman finished its first season under Hahaj at 26-6-1. The Bees graduate five regulars in outfielders Kyle Rotondo and Dustin Hays, infielders Belanger and Brandon Starkey and pitcher Brady Wasko.

"Bishop Foley is the real deal," Hahaj said. "They're a very good team. I knew we were going to have to play a perfect baseball game, and then also hit the ball. It just didn't happen today. I told the guys don't hang your heads for a second, because their season was amazing."